this post was submitted on 22 Jun 2024
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He is a symbol of social Democrats, though, but he's also a realistic product of his time. I heard an interview with a historian awhile back I wish I could find again. They basically described how if you try to judge a historical figure through today's moral lens, you'll always be disappointed, because history is rife with racism, dehumanization, slavery, and genocide. The most ardent leftists will point to the handful of white people who were actively fighting racism in the 1930s and say "See? Roosevelt didn't have to implement racist policies!!" But the reality is that the majority culture was racist. The concept of not being racist just didn't exist to 95%+ of white people at the time. Abraham Lincoln didn't believe in racial equality, but I don't use that to discount his positive contributions
Yeah it's difficult to judge. Don't Ask Don't Tell for gay rights was once considered leftwing politics for instance. I guess it is unfair to blame FDR though. He was no worse than most of the American left at his time. I still think we can aspire to much better though.
We can absolutely aspire to be better than we were in the past